Stealth and Tracking
by Mute Mockingbird
Summary: Alastor Moody trains the Auror recruits who are supposed to fail: washouts, misfits, potential traitors, etc. That includes one clumsy, irreverent, halfblood Metamorphmagus, who never does do what she's supposed to.


**Author's Note:** This story was written for the "Adult Issues" challenge on Fiction Net. The complete challenge was: _Okay, so the books are set to revolve around the kids, aren't they? So, use your imaginations and show us what the HP adults do with their time. OC characters may not be included, we just want pure HP characters as J K created them. This is pretty much open to whatever you want to do with it. HP Adults. Fic it. The End XD. . . All entries must be longer than 1500 words._

**Stealth and Tracking**

**I**

"I'll bet it's another Stealth-and-sanguinary-Tracking exercise," Auror- in-Training Nymphadora Tonks muttered to herself, as she cautiously crept down the deserted hallway toward Senior Auror Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody's office.

Mad-Eye knew that Tonks had as much _stealth_ as an asthmatic hamster has _horsepower_. And Tonks knew (everybody knew) that Mad- Eye was not only the best Auror the Ministry had, but also the most paranoid. If he chose you to be his protégé, it was because he thought you untrustworthy, and he was going to drive you out of the program if it was the last thing anyone did to you.

It hadn't been much of a surprise when he had chosen Tonks, who needed more than one hand to count the number of her relatives who had served the Dark Lord—unless, of course, she morphed the hand. But how can you trust a girl in anything if you can't even trust her to wear her own face?

Before opening the door, Tonks quickly ran through a list of her best counter-curses and disarmament spells. It wouldn't do to go into Mad-Eye's presence unprepared for an all-out assault. But she was unprepared to hear the words, "I do believe it shall be a Stealth and Tracking exercise, Miss Tonks," growled from _behind_ her.

Tonks blushed furiously as she turned around, dodged Mad-Eye's first stunning spell, mostly dodged the second, and disarmed him before he could get off the third—all before it had even consciously registered that the paranoid old geezer had cheated, had ambushed her outside the office when he was supposed to ambush her inside it. "EXPELLARIMUS! Wotcher, Mad— eh, Mister Moody, Sir. You were s'posed to be in your office," she panted.

"Constant vigilance!" Mad-Eye growled, not winded at all, as he used his backup wand to retrieve the wand Tonks had knocked out of his hands, "if the enemy always did what they were supposed to, they wouldn't be the enemy."

"Yes, sir." Tonks said.

"You can never, _never_ afford _not_ to know who's behind you!"

"Yes, sir."

Moody glared at Tonks a moment, as if waiting for his admonition to sink in. When it failed to do so, he continued. "As I was saying, this is to be a Stealth and Tracking exercise. You're to follow me from the moment I apparate from this building to the moment apparate back. In your debriefing, you will provide accurate and detailed descriptions of every place I stop at and every person I meet along the way. You'll be tracking me through Knockturn Alley. And I will stun you, and you will fail the exercise, the second I see you. Understood?"

"Yes, sir. Very clearly understood, sir."

**II**

Two hours, six shops of questionable legality stopped at, eleven people of even more questionable legality met, and at least three near-stunnings later, Tonks began to wonder if perhaps the reason that Mad-Eye (meticulous as he was in giving orders) had neglected to set a time limit for this exercise was that he intended to stay out as long as he had to, in order to catch, and fail, Tonks.

It was, after all, the second time they were stopping at Borgin and Burkes. Tonks was rather proud she had lasted so long. But she couldn't last much longer. She was getting jumpy, seeing things that weren't there in the shadows. For example, that particularly dark one over there—

**III**

Tonks woke suddenly and with a throbbing headache; and with her hands bound behind her; and without a wand. No doubt she had failed the exercise, she thought, until she looked around the room and noticed Mad-Eye sitting next to her on the floor, also bound, and both their wands on a small table some distance away, next to a chair, in which sat a short, rotund wizard. Tonks recognized the face, but couldn't remember the associated name. They were in some sort of cave, she guessed, because the walls and ceiling were of solid stone.

"And she wakes at last." the unknown wizard said, "I wonder, Mad-Eye, what she'd think of your noble sacrifice on her behalf?"

"It's only a sacrifice, Carrow, if you expect it to do some good. But I know you don't plan to let either of us leave here alive."

Tonks blinked. _Carrow? That's it: Amycus Carrow, still wanted, after all these years, as a Death Eater. Never apprehended. What's this about a sacrifice? Oh, no. I must have been captured, and Mad-Eye must have come to help me. Why can't I do anything right?_

Amycus was still smiling. "You can't escape, you know. This cave is at least a mile underground, and the only way out is that tunnel over there, set to fill with debris on my command. You brought down quite a few of my companions in your day, Mad-Eye Moody. But your day is over. The Dark Lord is gone, but _I_ can still have my revenge for what you took from me, my muggle-loving, blood-traitor friend."

"Hypocrite," Nymphadora murmured.

"What?"

_Maybe I can distract him,_ she thought, _enough that Mad-Eye can take him out. I can't afford to hesitate, then, and I can't afford to screw this up._ "You're a hypocrite. You play the part, you wear the mask, but your heart's not in it." she said.

"And you would know all about the wearing of masks, would you not?" Amycus replied, with a sneer.

"I know that your ancestors wanted most of all to die with honor, and that you want most of all to cheat death—dishonorably, if necessary."

Amycus laughed. "And what does a filthy, whoring _shape-shifter_ know about honor?"

_Steady_ Nymphadora told herself, _this is no time to throw a classic Black tantrum, even if it would establish your _pureté. "Is it because you know that none of your _pure_ women would be chaste if they had my talent, that you assume I must be a whore?"

"I don't need to know about your _talent_. All I need to know about is your filthy mother, who couldn't even—"

"I hope, if your Dark Lord ever returns, that I'll be enough of a Black to die honorably, rather than live as that sociopath's house-elf! That's more than your untainted, Carrow blood has done for you!"

"_Crucio._"

As far as Cruciatus Curses went, it was relatively mild. He had spoken barely above a whisper, after all. Aunty Bella would have laughed. Tonks couldn't stop whimpering. There was no room in her head for any thought, nor for any feeling except pain and the agonized anticipation of yet more pain. She couldn't breathe until it stopped.

And Amycus was back in control of the conversation. "Hold your tongue, you abominable daughter of a lying, filthy blood-traitor."

"Mum's no blood-traitor. . ." Tonks gasped out. But she didn't have the breath to continue. So she gulped for air—and choked on it, and began a coughing fit.

"I can't see how you survived as long as you did, Mad-Eye" Amycus said, " if this was what you had to work with. Or has the quality of your recruits been steadily declining over the years?"

"Mum's no blood-traitor," wheezed Nymphadora Tonks, "but you are."

Amycus focused exclusively on Tonks, turning his back to Mad-Eye. It took him no more time than it took Tonks to blink before he realized his mistake and whirled back to watch Mad-Eye, but by then, Mad-Eye had drawn his backup wand and disarmed Amycus. Amycus dodged a stunning spell and lunged for his wand. Mad-Eye sent the wand flying out of reach. Tonks struggled to stand and ran to grab her wand. By the time she had removed her shackles and turned around to help, Mad-Eye was standing alone and the exit was filling fast with rubble. Amycus Carrow had fled, triggering the cave-in behind him.

**IV**

"You ok?" Tonks asked.

"He got away," Mad-Eye grunted, "why should I be 'ok'?"

"Um. . . because we're alive?"

"For now. Alright, lass, next phase of the exercise: find us a way out of here."

"We've been kidnapped and nearly killed by a deranged former Death Eater, and you want to treat this as a drill?" Tonks wasn't sure that she'd heard Mad-Eye properly.

"Aye."

Tonks sighed. _Alright, I need a way out of here. . . assuming that there is a way out of here._ "We're too far below to dig our way out. We'll have to get a signal up to the surface." _What signal isn't impeded by miles of stone, and can work when there's no line of sight between sender and receiver?_

"Ah, but how?"

Tonks was silent, running through all the spells she knew, and coming up blank. Perhaps they would have to blast their way out after all.

"Well then," said Mad-Eye, as he set one of the chairs upright again and sat on it, "let's talk about other things, and maybe it will come to you. Why did you say that your mother wasn't a blood-traitor?"

Tonks sighed. "Mum's got funny ideas about that sort of thing. In her mind, she's not a blood traitor, it's the fanatic pure-bloods who're the traitors, see?"

"No."

"It's. . . weird. Difficult to explain. Mum thinks there's this _true_ pure-blood standard that has to do with honor and virtue, not with blood. Only it _has_ got to do with blood, because everyone _of the blood_ is supposed to adhere to the standard, while only those muggles and muggle-borns who choose it have to. Mum doesn't think any less of Dad just because he's muggle-born, on account of him having chosen to be a decent sort of chap. But _I_ don't get a choice, see, because I'm half a Black. _Noblesse oblige_."

"And that's why you decided to become an Auror?"

"You could say that. After all the Blacks have done, I suppose someone's got to start undoing it all."

"Yet your mother hates the Ministry."

"_Hate_ is so strong a word. She thinks they're all lying incompetents, if that's what you mean. But I'm not my mum, even if I have got some of her crazy ideas. I can be loyal to the Ministry."

"As your mother is loyal to the Black family?"

Tonks didn't answer.

Mad-Eye stared searchingly at Tonks for a long time. Finally, he stood up. "That's the kind of loyalty the Ministry needs, Tonks, even if that's not the kind it wants. Sometimes, you have to be loyal enough to disobey; which is no excuse, of course, to be one of those traitorous rats who are _disloyal_ enough to disobey."

It was Tonks' turn to stare at Mad-Eye. "No, sir, that doesn't sound like something the Ministry would want you to tell the new recruits. Don't tell me you were part of the Order of the Phoenix, the vigilante group that resisted the Dark Lord when the Ministry couldn't?"

Mad-Eye grinned. "Oh, I was—not that we're having this conversation, of course. But did you ever wonder how so many 'vigilantes' could keep in touch?"

"Never thought about it, sir. Don't suppose it could get a message through a mile or so of solid rock?"

"Depends on the sender. How good is your Patronus?"

_Of course,_ Tonks thought, _a Patronus could go through solid rock, if the spell-caster is good enough. We could lead a search party right to us. Well then, happy memory?_ Perhaps one of her long heart- to-heart talks with Mum, sitting on a kitchen stool, drinking homemade hot chocolate? That never failed to conjure a reliable Patronus.

"_Expecto Patronum,_" Tonks murmured, waving her wand. A stream of silvery light flowed out of the wand-tip, and collected in mid-air in the shape of a half-circle with four legs, a spiral tail, and a head vaguely reminiscent of a hornless Triceratops—a chameleon.

"Who should I send him to?" Tonks asked.

Mad-Eye hesitated a moment. "Send him to Shaklebolt. He'll know what to do."

_So, was Shaklebolt part of the Order, as well?_ "Alright," she said to the Patronus, "will you please go up to Auror headquarters and find Kingsly Shacklebolt, and lead him back to us?"

And as the Patronus vanished into the stone ceiling, Tonks reflected that Mad-Eye would hardly have told her this if he still wanted her to fail. Tonks grinned. She could qualify! As long as she passed the rest of the exercises. _This_ memory might make a respectable Patronus itself someday.

**THE END**

**Disclaimer:** This story is a work of fan-written fiction, written for fun and making no profit. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination, or the product J. K. Rowling's imagination, or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

The Harry Potter world (including, but not limited to, the characters Nymphadora Tonks, Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, Amycus Carrow, and Kingsley Shacklebolt, and the institutions the Ministry of Magic, the Aurors, and the Death Eaters, and the terms "pure-blood", "muggle", and "muggle-born") were created and are owned by J. K. Rowling. This fan-fiction makes use of this world without the owner's knowledge or consent, in the hope that she wouldn't mind terribly if she ever found out.

Special thanks to the Harry Potter Lexicon on the theory that Amycus is one of the Carrows, who avoided imprisonment in Azkaban after Voldemort's first fall.


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